In recent years considerable attention has been focused on the amount of triglyceride fat in the diet from the standpoint of health concerns about obesity and hypercholesterolemia. Numerous patents have been directed to providing materials which have the physical and gustatory characteristics of triglyceride fats, but which are absorbed to a low extent or not at all by the body. These materials are referred to variously as noncaloric fats, pseudofats, nondigestible fats and fat substitutes. Patents pertaining to such materials include U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,927, Fulcher, issued Apr. 15, 1986, (fatty esters of malonic acid); U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,715, Volpenhein, issued Apr. 15, 1986, (alpha acetylated triglycerides); and U.S. Pat. No. 3,579,548, Whyte, issued May 18, 1971, (triglycerides of alpha-branched chain carboxylic acids).
One particular type of compound which has achieved considerable attention as a nondigestible fat is sucrose polyester (i.e., sucrose in which at least four of the eight hydroxyl groups are esterified with a fatty acid). U.S. Pat. No. 3,600,186, Mattson, issued Aug. 17, 1971; U.S. Pat. No. 4,368,213, Hollenbach et al. issued Jan. 11, 1983; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,461,782, Robbins et al. issued Jul. 24, 1984 describe the use of this material as a nondigestible fat in a variety of food compositions.
A problem associated with moderate to high levels of ingestion of liquid nondigestible fats, i.e., those having a melting point below body temperature (about 37.degree. C.), is an undesired passive oil loss effect, which is manifested in leakage of the liquid nondigested fat through the anal sphincter. U.S. Pat. No. 4,005,195, Jandacek, issued Jan. 25, 1977, discloses the combining of higher melting fatty materials such as solid triglycerides and solid sucrose polyesters with the liquid sucrose polyesters in order to avoid the oil loss effect.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,797,300 (Jandacek et al.), issued Jan. 10, 1989 discloses the use of certain solid sucrose polyesters which have high oil binding capacity for liquid sucrose polyesters and liquid triglycerides, when used at levels of about 10% to 25% in said oils. It is disclosed that because of their high oil binding capacity, these solid sucrose polyesters have outstanding utility as agents to control or prevent passive oil loss of liquid nondigestible sucrose polyesters, and they are also useful as non-caloric hardstocks to use with liquid digestible or nondigestible oils in the preparation of semi-solid fat products such as shortenings and margarines. The oil binding agents of the Jandacek et al. '300 patent are solid sucrose polyesters wherein the ester groups consist essentially of a mixture of short chain saturated fatty acid ester radicals (C.sub.2 -C.sub.10) and long chain saturated fatty acid radicals (C.sub.20 -C.sub.24) in a molar ratio of short chain to long chain of from about 3:5 to about 5:3, and wherein the degree of esterification is from about 7 to about 8.
U.S. Pat. 3,158,490 (Baur et al.), issued Nov. 24, 1964 discloses sucrose (and other disaccharide) polyesters which are useful as additives at 0.001% to 0.5% level in triglyceride salad oils to prevent clouding in low-temperature storage of the oils. The degree of esterification is at least 3, i.e., no more than 5 of the 8 hydroxyl groups are unesterified. The ester groups are a combination of: (1) from 15-85% saturated C.sub.14 -C.sub.22 fatty acids, and (2) the balance selected from saturated C.sub.2 -C.sub.12 or unsaturated C.sub.14 -C.sub.22 fatty acids. Arachidic (C.sub.20) and behenic (C.sub.22) acids are recited as specific examples of (1) and acetic (C.sub.2), caprylic (C.sub.8), and oleic, (C.sub.18-1) acids are recited as specific examples of (2). At col. 2, lines 5-10, a sucrose ester having 2 oleic and 6 palmitic groups is disclosed, and it is stated that long chain saturated acids such as myristic, stearic, arachidic, behenic, or mixtures thereof can be used in place of all or part of the palmitic.
It is an object of the present invention to provide novel solid nondigestible fat materials which are suitable substitutes for solid fat in foods.
Another object of the present invention is to provide novel, solid, nondigestible fat materials which are especially effective oil binding agents for use in mixture with liquid nondigestible oils in food products to control or prevent passive oil loss of the liquid oils when ingested.
It is another objective of the invention to provide novel solid nondigestible fat materials which are effective in binding oils and are thereby especially useful in formulating shortenings and other semi-solid products and fluid cooking and salad oils from liquid digestible or nondigestible oils.
For purposes of describing this invention, the term "nondigestible" shall mean being absorbable to an extent of only 70% or less (especially 20% or less) by the human body through its digestive system.
All percentages and proportions herein are "by weight" unless otherwise specified.